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A Life Less Throwaway

Making your money go further
ten0rman
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149136

Postby ten0rman » June 30th, 2018, 7:32 pm

There's nothing new in this idea - ever since I got married (47 years now) I've made things last until they either wore out and became unrepairable, or until they became unusable due to changing technology. Hence we have had:
a 25 year old tv, replaced because it would not work correctly with a replacement digital set top box;
on our second 17 year old washing machine - on the first one the spider that holds the drum etc literally crumbled away;
bought s/h cars and generally run them until 10 years old, or in one case until 12 - that one was changed because the towbar was rusting away and was unsafe (those with a longish memory will remember a Focus we got rid of at 6 because of its continuing unreliability, but that was an oddity I think); recently changed a 20 year old caravan because the sides were expanding due to frame collapse;
and am currently running three laptops, one of which is over 10 years old and working well, another is 8 or 9 and working well as my backup machine, whilst the third was intercepted on its way to the tip and is now working well in my garage, despite certain problems such as the wrong keyboard.

In addition, I always save A4 paper with blank reverse sides - useful for drawings for personal use, and sometimes for other people as long as there is nothing too personal on the front.

Also, I've been fortunate in that a combination of training, experimenting, and discussion with colleagues has meant that I have been able to repair a lot of equipment in the past, and still am even though I'm in my mid-70's, a classic example being the current rewire of a multi-lamp light for the third time where the existing wiring has perished due to heat.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the drift.

Regards,

ten0rman

neversay
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149139

Postby neversay » June 30th, 2018, 7:48 pm

ten0rman wrote:Also, I've been fortunate in that a combination of training, experimenting, and discussion with colleagues has meant that I have been able to repair a lot of equipment in the past, and still am even though I'm in my mid-70's, a classic example being the current rewire of a multi-lamp light for the third time where the existing wiring has perished due to heat.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the drift.

Regards,

ten0rman


I agree it's not new, but I wonder if younger age groups have got that same patience and priorities?

Like you, I like to do DIY and 'make do and mend' but if I priced my time (and scarcity of free time) then it would be uneconomical.

What bugs me is that it has got harder to identify 'quality' in these days of engineered obsolescence and the milking of quality brand names.

ten0rman
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149230

Postby ten0rman » July 1st, 2018, 10:48 am

neversay,

In years gone by, DIY was a necessity, either DIY or DWO (Do With Out), you know what it's like - mortgage, young children, etc. Prior to getting married though, it was more for interest than anything else; today, it's back to more for interest than financial reasons, plus, in respect of the light fitting, Mrs T. saying "But I like it!" In general though, cars are out of the question due to both complexity and age (my age!), and other stuff, well in some respects I'm out of date but otherwise I sometimes can't be bothered.

Patience & priorities. Of my 3 children, one can't due to being in a wheel chair following an accident, one just doesn't seem to care about anything (can't understand him), whilst the third works hard and does indeed prioritise everything. Of the four grandchildren, the elder is currently working 28 hours a day (well he would if he could) in his father's firm, the next one works full time and then goes to work for their father's firm afterwards, whilst the remaining two are too young. So in reality, none of the grandchildren have time for anything else.

Thinking about it, I suppose I was lucky in that I did indeed have time to be able to do these jobs as I didn't get that much overtime.

ten0rman

ReformedCharacter
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149250

Postby ReformedCharacter » July 1st, 2018, 11:51 am

My father was of a generation that appreciated durability and quality of everyday items. In his tool box was an adjustable spanner that had reputedly been retrieved from a crashed Zeppelin. Unfortunately my father's tools were inherited by my ex brother-in-law (boo hiss!) but I've no doubt it would still be as useful now as it was when manufactured over 100 years ago. It came as something of a shock to me - at a young age - to learn that some goods were actually designed to last for only a limited period of time.

I encouraged my children to watch 'The Story Of Stuff'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

It's a little dated but the message is still valid IMO.

RC

PrincessB
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149301

Postby PrincessB » July 1st, 2018, 4:58 pm

I went to my first Restart Party this morning and I'm delighted with the results.

Restart parties are in essence some volunteers meeting up to offer their services to fix broken electrical items.

I managed arrive second just behind a chap with a Roberts CD player radio with a non functioning CD player.

My own project was a set of lightweight in ear headphones with a crack in the wire that meant only one speaker still worked. I found a new set of headphones to provide a new cord and after some precision solder work my headphones work again and a decent donation was made.

While I was there I met a lad and dad with a laptop whose power brick had started smoking - They are going to need a new supply, but the laptop had survived the incident, following that was a lady with a Quooker (those under sink boiling water things) another radio and as I was leaving a young couple with a couple of side lamps came in along with another lady who was trying to park near enough to bring her hoover in.

Restart parties seem to be growing in popularity, especially in the London area though one chap knew of them as his son was using the service out in Leicester.

Regards,

B.

stevensfo
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149307

Postby stevensfo » July 1st, 2018, 5:37 pm

In his tool box was an adjustable spanner that had reputedly been retrieved from a crashed Zeppelin. Unfortunately my father's tools were inherited by my ex brother-in-law (boo hiss!) but I've no doubt it would still be as useful now as it was when manufactured over 100 years ago
.

Do you realise that there are War Memorabilia collectors who would pay and arm and a leg for that?


Steve

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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149312

Postby ReformedCharacter » July 1st, 2018, 6:15 pm

stevensfo wrote:
In his tool box was an adjustable spanner that had reputedly been retrieved from a crashed Zeppelin. Unfortunately my father's tools were inherited by my ex brother-in-law (boo hiss!) but I've no doubt it would still be as useful now as it was when manufactured over 100 years ago
.

Do you realise that there are War Memorabilia collectors who would pay and arm and a leg for that?

Steve

Not till you mentioned it! I haven't seen the spanner for a long time of course but thinking about it this afternoon I remembered that it was embossed with the name of a German company, I'm pretty sure it was 'Mauser' which I know of as an arms company, not a manufacturer of tools.

PS How much (roughly) is an arm and a leg, in this particular case? ;)

RC

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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149317

Postby PinkDalek » July 1st, 2018, 7:11 pm

ReformedCharacter wrote:Not till you mentioned it! I haven't seen the spanner for a long time of course but thinking about it this afternoon I remembered that it was embossed with the name of a German company, I'm pretty sure it was 'Mauser' which I know of as an arms company, not a manufacturer of tools.

PS How much (roughly) is an arm and a leg, in this particular case? ;)

RC


You probably need to get hold of the full markings, in addition to the manufacturer's name. Here's some examples purporting to be World War II:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mauser+wrench

If you can't prove the Zeppelin connection ...

ReformedCharacter
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149338

Postby ReformedCharacter » July 1st, 2018, 9:23 pm

PinkDalek wrote:
You probably need to get hold of the full markings, in addition to the manufacturer's name. Here's some examples purporting to be World War II:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mauser+wrench

If you can't prove the Zeppelin connection ...


Thanks very much for the link. My memory matches the one there marked as Vintage. It was certainly a nicely made tool. My father told me at a young age, almost apologetically as he had been to war against them, that the Germans made good tools. He had an Wolf electric drill which he was disappointed to lose when the mains supply was changed from 210V. I still have the replacement he was provided with - that must be 50 years old or thereabouts... :)

RC

stevensfo
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149340

Postby stevensfo » July 1st, 2018, 9:48 pm

Not till you mentioned it! I haven't seen the spanner for a long time of course but thinking about it this afternoon I remembered that it was embossed with the name of a German company, I'm pretty sure it was 'Mauser' which I know of as an arms company, not a manufacturer of tools.

PS How much (roughly) is an arm and a leg, in this particular case? ;)


Haven't a clue! :-)

My Uncle is a retired Primary school Headmaster and devotes a lot of his time to this, and is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to military stuff. He buys and sells stuff all the time. He got hold of a WWII diary on Ebay and tracked down the guy's widow and children in Germany, went over and presented them with it.

I guess ex-Headmasters do that sort of thing. Most of us would have made them bid for it with used notes. 8-)

If you're really interested, send a PM and I'll put the two of you in touch.

His wife (my Aunt) is a retired Primary school teacher as well, so I suggest you wear your best shorts, pull your socks up and wipe your nose. :-)


Steve

UncleEbenezer
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149419

Postby UncleEbenezer » July 2nd, 2018, 10:18 am

ten0rman wrote:In addition, I always save A4 paper with blank reverse sides - useful for drawings for personal use, and sometimes for other people as long as there is nothing too personal on the front.

Never heard of the "back of an envelope"? Paper re-use is so widespread as to have entered the language.

Back in the 1970s my schoolboy self was already unhappy with wasting paper in my exercise books - despite it being provided "free" by the school. So I cultivated ways of saving it:
- Extra-diminutive handwriting to pack more onto a page.
- Write once in pencil, so I could re-use the page by overwriting in ink.

I think I only gave up those habits as a student at Cambridge, when I realised it would no longer be such a good idea:
- Suddenly finding myself dealing with material that wasn't insultingly obvious and patronising, it was good to have notes I could read at a later date.
- Taking lecture notes, one should ideally concentrate on the contents of a lecture. Sometimes write quite a lot if the subject matter needed thinking through.

ten0rman
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Re: A Life Less Throwaway

#149491

Postby ten0rman » July 2nd, 2018, 2:12 pm

Uncle,

Used to save both A4 & A5 envelopes for use in the printer until I found that the pile was increasing faster than I was using it. Other envelopes (DL & C6(?)) are usually too tatty after being ripped open to be of much use.

So yes, I have heard of "back of the envelope".

ten0rman


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